Paleo Mexican “Makeover Leftover” Pork Carnitas

So what do you do when you have too much leftover pork? You don’t throw it away silly!! Don’t you know there are starving, homeless people?!?!? And how about those crazy Paleo, CrossFit cultish people?!?! They would deadlift you if they found out you threw away a perfectly good source of protein. Well all jokes aside, I usually refer to myself as the Leftover Queen (who never wastes food and will eat every last bite of anything she cooks) but this girl (and family) do get tired of leftovers…sometimes. Well this week I made a pork shoulder that could feed an Army. After a few days of eating pork in our eggs, throwing pork in our salads for lunch and eating it for dinner, we had enough. Instead of throwing it away I decided to give it a face lift or makeover if you will.

My “makeover leftover” recipe was inspired by my fave paleo blogger that I am utterly obsessed with. Come on, who isn’t? Her recipe is a Barbacoa recipe which is actually made of beef. Differences with my recipe is, of course, mine is pork. Also, in her recipe, her means of cooking this leftover meal was to throw everything back in the crock pot and cook for 1 hour. I just took my leftover shredded pork and put it in a covered sauce pan for 20 minutes to cook and it was done! I found no need to throw it back in the crock pot. Wow, for once I used a pan over my crock pot; I never thought I would see that day. Either way, I was so happy how it turned out. The kids loved it too which, as you know, is a plus in my house.

3 Responses to “Paleo Mexican “Makeover Leftover” Pork Carnitas”

I’m so glad I found this post! My inlaws grilled carnitas straight out of the package and they weren’t good at all. (no flavor or seasoning!) I followed your recipe along with 12 oz of beer and 1/2 cup of orange juice in the crockpot for 3-4 hours on low. (so I guess it wasn’t Paleo anymore) It turned out great! Thanks so much!

So I fed this recipe to my non-Paleo husband and he actually loved it! He had two servings and both over your cauliflower rice. He said as long as he doesn’t have to sacrifice in flavor, he’ll eat Paleo all day long! A win for me!

I’ve made this several times and it is hands down the best paleo snack ever! Super versatile, super easy, and best of all paleo approved, toddler approved (super easy for them to help scoop all those dry infredients, we use a 1/4 cup so there are lots and lots of turns) and infantryman approved!!!